DAY ALL OF THEM ALL WEEK: I can build a house from wood putty.

LIQUID COURAGE: George Dickle Tennessee Whiskey, Superior No. 12

WARNINGS: buy in bulk.

Above you can see the biggest problem I had, which was that one of the edges of the rope channel had broken out and I had to recreate it. (This was my fault. I got excited when I was trying to remove the window and pulled toward me instead of down.) The thing with wood putty is that you can’t just pile it on. Well you can, but it will just break off when you sand it. You have to build it up slowly. The above pictures are after 4 applications.

WEEKEND TWO, DAY ONE, PART ONE: Paint the windows

LIQUID COURAGE: Perc’s Tanzania Tarime Ab Coffee

WARNINGS: bye bye manicure.

I prefer to paint my windows before adding the glass. This allows me to avoid the pesky task of removing all the paint that I’m going to spill off the glass. I will have to paint a little afterwards, but we’ll get to that later.

The stripped and puttied windows get one more hit with a fine grit sandpaper, smoothing them out. Then both sides get primed. (ESPECIALLY THE PUTTY) The exterior side of the window is painted black with Rust-oleum Oil Based Marine Paint. The interior side gets the same treatment in white.

Using oil based paint is not my favorite, but in this case I want as much water protection for the windows as possible. To clean a brush that was used to paint with oil, you need to wash the brush in mineral spirits. There isn’t a paint brush that I love enough to do this. So when I know I’m going to be working with oil, I purchase a handful of 50 cent disposable brushes. Family Dollar and Dollar General are PERFECT for this, as you can usually get three or four brushes for a dollar. When I’m done, I throw them away.

The edges of the sashes are tricky. Conventional wisdom says that you do not paint the rope edges where the channels, they will be “inside” the window at the end and never seen. But, so far in my experience the rope edges have the most damage, and some of it comes from water. So I give them a healthy soaking in primer. The upper and lower edges of each sash will be seen, and are painted to match.

Since the each window sash has several sides, it is impossible to paint the entire sash at once. It has to sit on something. So I started with the white paint in the morning and then left them both alone all day while I gardened and did other things. Then before bed I flipped them and did the black.

WEEKEND TWO, DAY ONE, PART TWO: Stretching screen

LIQUID COURAGE: George Dickle Tennessee Whiskey, Superior No. 12

WARNINGS: we just do this instead of watching paint dry

I used nails on the edge of the screen frame to hold the loose screen still. I stretch it tight, but not overly so because the next step is going to stretch it further. This process is complicated by the fact that the screen is taller than I am, and Tropical Storm Bonnie was visiting so I was restricted to inside the shed and further restricted by the drying window sashes I had to be careful not to bump.

Adding the quarter round into the groove forces the screen tight. The quarter round is cut on the 45 so that the pieces fit together the same way as the frame, and tacked down with short nails. I actually pilot those nails with very small drill bit to make sure that each one goes exactly where I want it. After all the edges are finished the excess screen can be trimmed off with a box cutter.